Friday, March 13, 2015

Project Stretch Mark

First of all, no I am not pregnant - rather I have slowly been loosing weight and as someone who is prone to stretch marks I have decided to do my darnedest to prevent any new ones from happening. What they don't tell you as a teen is that you can get those annoying red marks at any stage of your life, not just when you are expecting a baby, nor when you put on weight. I find it extremely odd that stretch marks can form when loosing weight - how? They are a product of the skin stretching beyond its natural capacity surely peeling the pounds off would be the polar opposite? None the less I am taking no chances and have purchased a whole array of various products aimed at reducing the appearance of existing marks and preventing new ones from forming. I should also flag up that some of us are more prone to stretch marks than others due to genetics.

Essentially I purchased one one of everything from the Palmers Cocoa Butter, most of which does seem to be aimed at expectant mothers - namely the massage lotion, the massage cream and the tummy butter. Unless you are pregnant skip the Palmers Cocoa Tummy Butter as it is a nightmare to apply - a solid balm which is greasy and near impossible to get anything out of the tub. In the end I had to scrape some of with my nails. Needless to say I won't be continuing with that. The others feature all the same ingredients of the Belly Butter minus the fuss - shea butter, argan oil, almond oil, collegen and elastin. Apparently such line up will not only help keep the skin supple and prevent future marks from appearing but help to fade and refine any existing stretch marks. As a plus the whole collection does smell delicious - a little like chocolate.

I am a huge advocate of Bio-Oil but man it is expensive, I purchase a bottle approximately once a week and at £10 a pop it sure does add up. I have to say that Bio-Oil does live up to the hype, it fades any existing scars and can prevent stretch marks if used religiously. Yes this is a little off topic but I have been dabbing this on my red acne scars and some have truly disappeared. In the hope of finding a cheaper body oil alternative I have purchased Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Skin Therapy Oil and Superdrug Vitamin E Dry Oil. Hopefully one of the two will suffice. I read that the skin needs Vitamin E to naturally repair scar tissue so I have began taking a daily supplement in the hopes it will somewhat help.

For my pesky existing stretch marks (on my hips) I have began daily gentle exfoliation and decided that since I am already using, oh I don't about 9/10's of the Palmer's Cocoa Butter range I thought it would only make sense to purchase the Palmer's Cocoa Butter Body Scrub. I will be entirely honest in saying that it doesn't smell nearly as delicious as the rest of the line up but does seem to have a nice, gritty yet gentle texture. If like myself you are avoiding any product that using plastic scrubbing beads the good news is that this only contains natural ingredients - the exfoliant power comes from crushed shell. Apparently by gently scrubbing any affected area you are refining the skins texture this making the stretch marks less noticeable.

I will of course update on what has worked for me in a couple of months but at the moment it is all very much trial and error. Any other tips and tricks you may have would be greatly appreciated.

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24 comments:

I am pregnant and this post has some of my favorite products for strech marks. Im currently combining the Bio Oil with a portuguese cream which is called Barral (Sweet Almond formula). I think Bio Oil is amazing but I am considering on buying the bigger size on Amazon because I have the small one. Palmers has amazing products but it´s rare to find a store that sells them. You can try the Clarins brand, but they are expensive. Last but not least I also heard about Gernetic´s Synchro.

I got stretch mark in my second year of uni, just in time for summer and they make me feel so self conscience, I've been looking at the Bio oil for a while now, would you say it is a good product to start with?

I got pretty bad stretch marks on the inside of my legs during uni, I found that just the normal cocoa butter moisturiser (can't think of a better way to describe it? It doesn't say stretch marks on and comes in like a tall bottle?) applied once a day made them go away pretty fast! And I think it's a little bit cheaper than the stretch marks version :)

As someone who is prone to stretch marks, I make sure I moisturize daily with The Body Shop Body Butters to keep my skin supple to minimize the risk. I have to say though it is definitely genetic, I got them in puberty and then when I found out I was pregnant, I slathered myself in cream/oil both day and night from day one and I still got stretch marks. I used palmers, bio oil, mama mio, hurts bees, you name it. I did think Bio Oil was great at reducing them though after pregnancy, the redness went away fairly quickly. Even though I hate my stretch marks, the result of them, my son, is definitely worth every mark!

I've been looking at bio oil - it's nice to see so many people recommend it. It's odd, stretch marks are just something that happens without you noticing and then BAM! they're just there one day. I've found I have them on my butt - great thing to discover when you're at the beach in a bikini haha.http://thewhimsicalfox.blogspot.com.au

I'm quite prone to stretch marks which is rather annoying, although they don't bother me, I would prefer not to have them so I will be waiting eagerly for the results! I LOVE palmers, they smell so delicious, and irresistible :)